What animal would do this?

[Gelster]

Came across this wasps nest the other day that looked like it had been dug out by an animal.

 

 

The grass around it had been well flattened over a considerable area.

 

I’m guessing badger, although I’ve never seen evidence of a sett on my land.

[MrNick]

Badger, as hard as nails and love to eat wasp grubs,

[nepia]

In general terms does anyone know if animals feel stings less than us?  We have a couple of small cats that hunt insects; they regularly get stung and seem to deal with it by just shaking their paw for a couple of seconds and forgetting the whole thing.

I wish I could dismiss a sting that easily.

[peatff]

3 minutes ago, nepia said:

In general terms does anyone know if animals feel stings less than us?  We have a couple of small cats that hunt insects; they regularly get stung and seem to deal with it by just shaking their paw for a couple of seconds and forgetting the whole thing.

I wish I could dismiss a sting that easily.

 

When we had our Fox terrier she stuck her nose in a wasp nest and got stung and it swelled up like a golf ball. She was so out of it I had to carry her home. I think they feel it same as us and the effects can be greater depending on where they are stung same as us. I got stung on the ear and it was painful but on the hand it's no worse than a nettle sting.

[aspenarb]

[Mick Dempsey]

My fox terrier actively hunts bees and wasps, quick snap of the jaws to disable it then studies it for a while on the ground before administering the coup de grace.

 

Must have been stung over the years, hasn’t deterred him.

 

 

[daltontrees]

I was on a badger course yesterday, so I',m not an expert, but it's fresh in my mind. This wasp nest question came up. Foxes and badgers will both seek out wasps nests, and apparently are good at judging the point at which the grubs are at their plumpest. Badgers when they dig push stuff to their sides and behind, whereas foxes shove it mainly behind. If there's a big area of spoil it's probably badger.

 

Typiucal badger territory is 1km2. Sett could be on adjacent land. But it's been a hard hard year for badgers finding food, so they could be coming from further away, foraging new territory. Or they could be nomadic.

 

All according to the Badger Society yesterday.

[drinksloe]

A lot of folk would be amazed they have badgers on there land as u generally never see them, but the signs are quite bvious when u know wot to look for.

Usually a broc hole will have a flat bottom and the same if they're crawling under fences etc, while fox runs/holes are more an even circle shape

 

Good practice further south is to fence of and bumble bees nests if u find them to try and stop there decline at the paws of badgers.

 

 

Dalton, when u say 1km2 is a territory, is that for an individual broc or a family group??

Some off the family groups/sett can be massive

[Khriss]

Their latrines are suprising -totally square. K

[felixthelogchopper]

43 minutes ago, Khriss said:

Their latrines are suprising -totally square. K

 

 

Edited July 22, 2018 by felixthelogchopper